PORTAL

About the PORTAL (MD/MSCR) Program

The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai offers a dual degree program for students who have a successful past in the clinical research environment and want to create a foundation for a career in translational research. The Patient-Oriented Research Training and Leadership (PORTAL) program offers the unique opportunity for students to earn a dual MD/MSCR degree. It is a highly selective, strongly mentored program, designed to encourage the career development of medical students who seek to become leaders as physician-scientists. Using a multidisciplinary approach, students in the PORTAL program obtain rigorous didactic and practical training in the field of clinical investigation from the very beginning.

Program Objectives

The PORTAL program is directed at teaching participants how to design and carry out original research studies leading to new approaches to the prevention, diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of disease. This comprehensive dual degree program prepares students for a future as lifelong learners and for careers in academia, research institutes, industry, or regulatory agencies.

Curriculum and Research

Students in the PORTAL program are taught the techniques and introduced to the thought processes used by patient-oriented clinical and translational researchers. The curriculum focuses on helping students gain critical thinking skills and offers a solid foundation for conducting independent patient-oriented research studies.

For their thesis research, PORTAL students pursue original scholarly research on a subject of their choice, guided by a faculty mentor and the program directors. This entails the formulation of a research question, design and conduct of a research plan, analysis of the resulting data, and presentation of the findings.

Admissions Criteria

In addition to meeting the requirements for admission to the MD program, PORTAL applicants must have had substantive clinical or translational research experience. All decisions are made on the basis of merit and without discrimination because of race, sex, color, creed, age, national origin, handicap, veteran status, marital status, or sexual orientation.

Applying to PORTAL

Applications to PORTAL will be sent to students who have applied to the MD program and have been invited for an interview.